The 2008 Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com) Mini-Tournament   October 2008, Mt. Vernon, Indiana

Introduction    (click here to skip to menu)

     The first Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com) Mini-Tournament was held at home gamer Jason Spindler's basement arcade in the Fall of 2008.  Located in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, the event was held over the weekend of October 11th and 12th, and attracted 11 entrants.  The tourney was refereed by CAGDC webmaster Mark Alpiger, and hosts Jason, and his wife Angela.

    13 games were part of the tourney, including the rare titles Beastie Feastie and Nova 2001, plus the ultra-rare game Turbo Sub.  Popular titles Centipede, Galaga, Tron, and Popeye were also part of the event, which attracted gamers from as far away as New Hampshire (Donald Hayes, who flew in), Illinois, and Michigan (Geoff Przekop, and Fred Ochs, respectfully, who each drove almost 400 miles).

Picture galleries    (click here to go to top menu)

    by:  Mark Alpiger  -  covering Saturday, October 11th and Sunday, October 12th

    by:  Geoff Przekop  -  covering Sunday, October 12th

    by:  Fred Ochs  -  covering Saturday, October 11th and Sunday, October 12th

Mark Alpiger's pictures

    Here's my usual picture coverage of a cag event.  For now, captions only appear on this page, but will eventually appear on the individual pages that come up when you click on a thumbnail below.  There's over 80 pictures here, which very early on day one of the event (Saturday, October 11th), and continue on thru the second, and final day (Sunday, October 12th).

It's late Friday evening, and Donald Hayes (foreground) has just arrived at the J-cade home arcade, owned by Jason Spindler (background).  He sets out by playing Beastie Feastie  for a bit, before going to bed.   Geoff Przekop arrived in the early evening, and has been helping Jason set up the games.  Here, they get Vs. Dr. Mario ready to go.   Geoff works on a couple of Vs. system boards.   Don is still practicing away on Beastie.   Jason has lined up his Nintendo blue cabinet titles, one of which (Popeye) is in the tournament.   Now it's Geoff's turn to practice.  He gets a chance to play the ultra-rare Turbo Sub, which is the only fully working one on the planet...   Geoff continues to play as Don and Jason look on, from a distance.   It's now Saturday morning, and Jason's wife Angela cleans a rare Computer Space game while Geoff and Jason chat before beginning to wind up preparations for the event.   Jason accommodates one entrant's request that a button be on the joystick itself, for Nova 2001.   The tourney has begun, and Geoff tries a game on Nova, while Jason fits in a game of Journey.   Don has just begun a one-hour timed game on Tron.  His first try was a tourney entrant-best (and CAGDC inaugural record) score of 743,919.   Jason's custom-made scoreboard reveals high scores for most of his home arcade games.   Jason's still playing Journey.   Here's a look at the Beastie Feastie kit, installed on a Pac-Man machine.   This close-up of the kit shows some detail on the control panel.   I just had to do it - this shot is of the tv monitor that was located in the gameroom; it shows a PC display of the output of a webcam (that we set up for the event), which shows... me photographing the monitor !   Tourney entrants continue to play games that appear in the event.   Upstairs, Angela prepares for the onslaught of tournament entrants, by manning the entry form table.   Also upstairs is a Neo-Geo two-slot cabinet that Jason arranged to be at the event.  It holds two of the games featured at the event.   One of the two games, Panic Bomber, is shown here. The other one is Gururin.   The final contest game title located upstairs is Arabian.   Also upstairs are two Computer Space games, both of which are undergoing rejuvenation and repair.   Back down to the basement, and the main set of tourney games.  Geoff takes a turn at Journey now.   Geoff moves on to the game he brought for the event - Beastie Feastie.  To his right, Angela gives Centipede a go.   Journey seems popular at the beginning of the event, as now Don plays a game on it.   Jason sets to work on one of his favorite new titles - RoadBlasters.  Shortly after this game, he set a contest, and world, record, with 493,540 points.   At mid-afternoon on day one, things are buzzing, as contestants play, and observe play on, the contest titles.   Time for Fred to take a Journey...   The Boolmans (at left, l-r, Connor and Mark) take a break, and watch as Jason repairs a control panel.   While Angela plays a Neo title, the Boolmans check out Arabian. Note that everyone is wearing their CAGDC t-shirts.  Nice...   It's back downstairs for Connor and Mark.   Fred plays Vs. Dr. Mario, and he had the tourney high, until Angela played, that is.   As Donald looks on, Mark sports a maniacal grin, because he's making good scoring progress on Nova 2001, a popular title at the event.   A crowd gathers to watch Don play Beastie Feastie.  He scored the event high, and wr, of 353,943, and then made a new wr after the tourney was over, with 408,506 points.   Connor is back on Arabian, as his dad Mark watches on.   Ryan Waelde (foreground) has arrived, and plays Turbo Sub, as non-entrant 'Richard', and Fred, play in the background.   Here's the name of Jason's home arcade - the J-cade !!  Underneath is the 'Notice of Filming', making all of the camera coverage 'legal' !   While his dad keeps trying for better Nova 2001 scores, Conner enjoys a free pop, courtesy of Jason's old-time soda dispensing machine.  See this photo for a look at it.   Geoff, who's a Bomberman fan, discovers a new title (for him) in the series - Panic Bomber.  Needless to say, it's love at first sight.   Back downstairs, the entrants really are out in force, in the early evening.   A little later, things have thinned out, but Don's playing Beastie again, and Connor's on Galaga again, too.  They played these particular titles extensively during the event.   Angela is seen playing at the start of her tourney-high game on Vs. Dr. Mario.  She scored 135,200.   Ref Jason has his clipboard at the ready, as Geoff gives Gururin a go.   Time for a few screenshots; this one reflects the high (and wr) so far on Nova 2001 - a 951,890 made by Mark Boolman this evening.   Beastie scores are shown here, but a number are gone, after a random machine reset.  Still, there's some impressive marks shown.   Here's a special shot - Jason's wr score on Turbo Sub is shown.  Previous to this, he only had scored over 14M once, so 15M is great !   Angela's super score on Vs. Dr. Mario is shown.  It remained on top for the entire event.   Sunday morning has arrived, and Angela makes some notes on the event update board.   Even tho it's only about half-past nine in the morning, a number of entrants are up and at 'em.  Jason and Don actually went to church earlier this morning, so they were up early.   Fred attempts to score higher on Arabian, even tho he has the tourney high, at 58,950 points.   Geoff tries another round of Gururin.  He said the title grew on him during the event.   Looks like persistence has paid off; Geoff just scored the current high, and a wr, on Gururin, with 5,360 points.  That barely beat the inaugural wr score I put up before the event - a 5,160 mark.   Geoff happily signs off on his record, with referee Angela Spindler.   Looks like he's not done for the morning - Geoff gets to work on trying to increase his score on Nova.   Likewise, other tourney entrants get going on games they think will help them raise their rank in the event.   Fred tries to beat Angela's score on Vs. Dr. Mario.  He's unsuccessful, however, when the final tally is in.   A look at the contestants in the main part of the gameroom.   Don tries a game of Turbo Sub.   Off to the side of the main section of games, this hallway shows entrants playing all three tourney titles that are located in this section.   Another look at the main gameroom.   Geoff fires up his video camera to record Jason at work on a non- tourney game - Donkey Kong 3.   Let's get some pics of the 'downstairs' tournament game titles.  Here's Popeye and Vs. Dr. Mario.   Next to them is Turbo Sub and Tron.   Here's Centipede.   Journey and RoadBlasters appear in this shot.   Nova 2001 is shown.   The final two 'downstairs' games are Galaga and Beastie Feastie.   OK - the results are tabulated, and it's time to get going on the tourney awards for the top three finishers.   As has been the case for the last two CAGDC tourneys, Don Hayes takes first place, and a whole $66.   I hand over the 'loot' to Don.   Next up is Fred Ochs, which I called the 'dark horse' of the event, as he was unexpectedly skilled at a number of titles.   I hand Fred his $33 in prize money.   We decide to redo Don's 'money shot', since the originals came out on the dark side.   Last, but far from least, Jason Spindler takes third place.   Jason's mouth is agape, as he struggles to collect his $11 prize.   I can't resist a wrap-up speech, and thank the hosts, and the players, at this very first mini-tourney event.   Now that the tournament, and awards ceremony, are over, Connor gets me to take a photo of him having the Spindler's cat 'play' a game.   Time for some more screenshots.  Here's Donald Haye's wr on Nova 2001, set late this morning. He made a great 1,735,270 score in about 50 minutes.   Here's a close-up of the score, and the one at left was Mark Boolman's attempt to get close to Don's score, just before the tourney end time.   Mark did manage to beat Geoff's wr score on Gururin earlier this morning.  This is a quite good score, and my attempts later to beat it failed.  Darn you Mark !!   A great way to wrap things up is with Don posing by his new wr title.

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Geoff Przekop's pictures

    Geoff Przekop contributed this nice set of 37 shots, all of which are the first 'wide' (tall, too !) shots posted onsite.  Yep, we're talkin' HD aspect ratio here !  Well, forget the tech specs, and just enjoy them.  Geoff's coverage features only the final day - Sunday, October 12th.

After only about 5 games, Don plays one final one on Nova 2001. It turned out to be a world record !   Here's a close-up of his game, about 35 minutes in.  He's at 1.25M and counting...   Another shot shows the 'look' of the enemies the game has.   I know he's busted the previous wr, set yesterday by Mark Boolman, so I get to video-taping this historical game.   After his game is over, and he's logged an impressive 1,735,270, Don watches Mark try to catch him.   Geoff gets a shot of something that some players use to stay alert - Jolt power cola.   This pic shows a non-tourney game - Donkey Kong 3.   With only about 15 minutes left, contestants try to raise their scores.   Fred tries another game of Beastie.   Aha - Don actually has a camera with him.  The question is, will he use it ?   Time to start figuring up the tournament rankings.   Mark's still playing Nova.   Wow - Don is taking pictures. I've never seen him do this before.   Angela strikes a pose, in front of the game she got the top tourney score on - Vs. Dr. Mario.   This screenshot reveals Donald's maxed-out 999,999 Centipede score.  After his one-hour game, he played on, and set this mark.   The colorful Turbo Sub cabinet is shown here.   Referee Angela Spindler helps me tabulate the tournament scores.   Jason gets in a final game of Arabian.   A look at the Neo-Geo two-slot.   Jason proudly poses beside the tourney info board, showing some of his great results.   The event is officially over, but Mark is still wearing the wireless webcam, which was a world- first for a cag event.   Connor plays some Turbo Sub, while contestants wait on the results.   Don has to play one more round of Beastie Feastie.  Geoff set up his video camera in hopes of capturing a top-scoring game.   Uh-oh - somebody caught a shot of the 'secret' tourney spreadsheet...   Time to get everyone to prepare for the awards ceremony.   I begin to get things going, but then people suggest I move to the other end of the room, so games will appear in the photos.   As I get my materials together, Jason shows off my camera, as I asked him to cover the ceremony with it.   The ceremony begins.   The entrants pay rapt attention...   After initial comments and thanks, it's time to give out the money !   Donald's up first, and collects $66 !  He even gives a thumbs up for it.   Next is Fred, who came in second to Donald.   Fred gets his loot - $33.   Finally, host Jason comes up.   He collects $11 for coming in third.   A couple of hours after the end of the tourney, Don had one last game of Beastie, and hit the jackpot.  He raised his wr score to 408,506.   Don proudly poses beside the game.

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Fred Ochs' pictures

    Fred Ochs took this set of 16 shots, all of which (like Geoff's, above) are 'wide' (and tall, too !) pics, as far as HD aspect ratio goes.  His coverage is of both tourney days (Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th).

After an afternoon of running the event, I (Mark Alpiger) take a short break in the early evening, and fit in a game of Beastie Feastie.   Don and Mark play tourney titles.   A non-entrant (Richard) plays.   Tron is shown here.   A few non-tourney titles are shown.   Bank Panic's side art is shown.   Mark plays one of many games of Nova 2001 that he will over the course of the event.   Upstairs, there's a Congo Bongo cocktail table that's not in the tourney.   Tourney game Arabian is shown, next to Make Trax and Revolution X.   Since he got the tourney high (58,950 points), Fred takes a shot of the Arabian scoreboard.   Just before ending time on Saturday, the gameroom is empty.   Sunday's arrived, and it's less than an hour to go.  At 1.5M, Don's near the end of his wr game on Nova.   Fred can't resist doing a 'Wiebe'.   A screenshot of Centipede's high- score table shows Don's top mark.   Fred made sure someone took a shot of him getting the second- place prize, with his camera.   This less than flattering shot is of me winding down the awards ceremony.

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Tourney results    (click here to go to top menu)

    CAGDC Mini-Tournament scoring results

    Player ranking results

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Other scores of note    (click here to go to top menu)

    Not all scores that occurred outside the tournament are noted below, as some accomplishments are unknown.

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